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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
ART. XXXVIII—NOTE UPON COFFEE.— By MM. Robiquet 
& BouTRON. Read at the sitting of the Societe de Phannacie, February 
1, 1837. 
There are few organic productions of any importance 
upon which chemists have not more or less industriously 
laboured, in the hope of discovering some of those immediate 
principles to which their most prominent properties are at- 
tributable; thus coffee, so generally in use on account of the 
peculiar and marked influence it possesses over the animal 
economy, has been, at divers times, the subject of reiterated 
experiments, but up to the present moment no striking result 
has been elicited by these efforts, and we have yet to learn 
if its remarkable action depends upon a peculiar principle, 
or the whole of its components. It was with the hope 
of filling up this void, that for the second time we undertook 
the analysis, determined not to abandon it until our efforts 
were crowned with some success, but we have calculated 
upon perseverance beyond our strength; and, at last, we have 
abandoned the effort which presents nothing satisfactory. At 
the sam.e time, we have determined to publish our results, 
imperfect as they are, in order to assist those more skilful and 
determined than ourselves who may make new attempts, 
that the same path may not always be trodden, and to lead 
them, if possible, into a more favourable direction. 
Knowing from all that had been written, and from 
what we had done ourselves, that coffee contained a fatty 
substance, we were desirous of commencing by extracting it, 
that greater distinctness might be attained in the subsequent 
products; and to accomplish it, we had recourse to ether, which 
removed from the entire grain only a species of very consist- 
ent brown wax. If, after treating it at first in this way, the 
green coffee is pulverized and placed anew in the same men- 
struum, the tinctures acquire a citrine colour; and leave, upon 
evaparation, a considerable quantity of a fixed oil of a clear 
